Here we are, on the road: We’re in Santa Clara, California

March 1, 2015 Lorraine’s report

Hello and thanks again for stopping by to see what we have been doing. We are parked at the Elks Lodge in Santa Clara. I called Norm and he gave us the one 50 amp site, the rest are 30 amps, water and an on site dump for the toilet. Not too bad, at least we have a spot.

It is nice to be here to help Susy with her surgery. I know how hard it is to have surgery, so I can understand how it is to go through what she is going through. Not a good place to be, but at least it is over and done with. Now for the healing. Go Susy Go, heal really fast!

Last Sunday we spent the morning with Tom/Dorothy/Mary, and Dave and Sandy. So happy they all are doing well but sad to go our separate ways.

The rest of the week we spend getting ready for our trip to Susy’s. I have to say that the roads over here to Susy’s are at best passable but they sure need that “shovel ready” road work on most of the roads here in California. In other words, they are hard to travel on. Also, I don’t remember coming through by Bakersfield and having so many bees/bugs hitting the windshield. It was gross. Chuck had to wash the bugs before he pulled into the site. So many bugs bit the dust.

I think this week is Johnny’s birthday. Have a good one John, Happy Birthday. I guess that is it for me. Hugs to all,

Lorraine

3/1/15 Chuck’s report

Last Sunday Dave and Sandy were leaving, heading out to continue their travels. But we invited them to go with us to the Desert Hot Springs Elks Lodge for breakfast with our friends, Tom, Dorothy and her sister, Mary. They got their rig set up for travel and followed us for the drive over. The winds were pretty heavy and we could tell it was moving them around so we slowed down, maybe not enough for Dave as he said it was still a chore to keep it in it’s lane, sorry about that.

But once we got to the lodge, everyone had a good time and good meal. But all too soon breakfast was over and we all headed our separate ways, knowing we will see all these fine folks somewhere down the road again. Thanks for taking time out to visit with us, both Dave/Sandy as well as Tom/Dorothy/Mary.

After our great time, we decided to stop off at Aqua Caliente Casino to play the slots. Unfortunately we didn’t continue with our good day, we both left some money there, maybe it will be seed money and we can harvest it next time.

Monday Lorraine did some laundry then we headed to Wal-Mart then later we to Augustine Casino for their senior buffet. This time Lorraine won enough that she was now even for our time here in Palm Springs, yea. And the buffet was good too, bonus. And she got a special deal, two free buffets but we had to use them within a week otherwise they would expire. We weren’t planning on returning before we left on Wednesday but a free buffet – ??, we’ll see.

Tuesday we toured the park a bit to see some of our friends before we left the next day. Our first stop was to see Mike/Linda, next Stan/Clara. We drove around to see some of our Lewis and Clark friends but they weren’t at their rigs, probably out doing the town. I did see Keith/Mary before we left and said we would try to see them in the morning before we left.

Then we headed back to Augustine for the “free” buffet. Yes, they didn’t charge us anything for the buffet but we tried our luck on the slots too, of course. And once again, Lorraine won and I even came out ahead a few bucks so yes, it was free.

Wednesday morning we got everything ready for travel and headed out of the park to hook up the car. Once again we had a good time here in Palm Springs, made even better with all of our friends in the area. We made it to our planned stop at Bakersfield Orange Grove RV Park for the night where we picked a grocery bag full of fresh oranges.

Next morning we headed out to our stop here at Santa Clara Elks Lodge. Mark was picking Katie up from school as she had a couple afterschool things they were doing, he would bring her by our place later. Susy was still working and would come by after work. I must say, I almost felt like going to the dentist after this trip, the road conditions were such that I thought it must have shaken my teeth filling loose.

We got to our site but didn’t back all the way into it, instead we got out our bucket, brushes, towels and such and washed the front end of the coach, we had lots of bugs on it. Along our trip we saw lots of trees, mostly almond, in bloom, some looked like snow on the ground from the falling petals. The growers have the honey bee keepers position their hives in the groves to pollenate them. Of course, that means they also fly around the area and we had more than our share on the front of the rig. It isn’t unusual for us to have to wash the front after a day’s travel so we have the routine down pretty well so it didn’t take too long but there were lots of bugs to remove.

Later that afternoon Mark and Katie came by but Mark couldn’t stay too long as he had things to do that evening. Soon, Susy came by after work and we went out to dinner. Susy’s birthday was last week, we couldn’t be here for that so we wanted to celebrate her birthday with a good dinner at Black Angus restaurant. Susy was having surgery on her shoulder the next morning so this was a 2fer, we were also celebrating her last meal before surgery, she couldn’t eat anything past midnight.

Friday morning we went to the hospital where Susy was already in pre-op. The !@#$# nurse wouldn’t let us in to see her even though she wouldn’t be going into the operating room for two hours so we just waited in the waiting room. Soon the pre-op nurse stopped but to let us know she was on her way into surgery.

After about 2 1/2 hours her doctor came out to let us know the surgery went well. He said he trimmed the bone as planned and the rotator cuff wasn’t torn as bad as suspected so he didn’t have to work on it, yea. He suggests the healing time should be shorter than expected and the pain shouldn’t be as intense, big YEA. About an hour later they let Lorraine in to see her and just before she was discharged, I was allowed to go back to see her too. Of course she was still pretty groggy but at least she wasn’t feeling any pain.

We stopped by to pick up Misty then headed over to her house where she spent most of the rest of the day in bed, still in/out of it. We did leave later and by then she was pretty much awake but every time she took one of the strong pain pills she got groggy once again.

Yesterday morning we got over here and Lorraine helped her get cleaned up a bit, she was itchy all over and felt much better after her “bath”. We spent the day here, helping when/where we could and even picked up KFC for dinner. She is feeling much better, has even been taking more time between pain medication and even then she cut the pills in half a couple times. She has been taking her arm out of the sling to straighten her elbow as directed, says it pulls the muscles at the surgery site but doesn’t hurt too much. So good news, she is doing pretty well after her surgery.

She, of course, can’t drive for awhile, at least as long as she is on the heavy duty pain pills and probably not until she see her doctor in two weeks. So that’s where we come in, we’ll try to help her as much as possible and of course will help with Katie too. Here’s hoping she continues to heal fast, with little pain and the surgery is a success!

The weather this past week has been different that the week before and it isn’t just because we left the desert. We had two days of heavy winds there, glad we weren’t traveling those days. Sure got sand and dust all over and in everything. We got a little rain sprinkle on Tuesday but we had already picked up and put away most of the outside stuff and it wasn’t much rain anyway.

The weather on our drive over was good, clear skies, no winds but the temperature was much lower that in Palm Springs, our highs were only in the low 60s. Lorraine was sad that she needed to wear long pants vs the shorts and tee shirts we had been wearing for the past two months. And that evening I switched over to long pants too, the temperature was dropping to the low 40s.

Yesterday afternoon we got big, black storm clouds built up then the rains started. They still need lots of rain in the area so it was welcomed my most folks, the news said they would have liked to have had much more. I heard that if they had 1 1/2 times the normal amount of rainfall over the next 5 years that the reservoirs would still only be 3/4 full, that means they are really low now for sure.

Our drive from Bakersfield to here was once again with temps in the 60s, in fact, in the hills it dropped to high 50s but it was still sunny with bright blue skies, I’ll take that over some of the weather going on back East. I sent an email to Brian who lived just outside Boston to say sorry about all the snow they are getting back there, record amounts. I told him I heard it might be God punishing them for beating the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, ha. But he said if that’s what it takes to have the World Championship back there again, he’ll take it, especially since they are in Florida for the winter and don’t have to deal with it. Good comeback Brian, hope all is going well with you and Sue down there.

Our travel plans on sort of on hold until we see how Susy heals and how long she may need us to be around and help her as she heals. Her follow-up appointment with the surgeon is on the 9th so we will stay around at least until after that doctor visit. We can only stay at the Elks for two weeks and we’ll be pushing that timeline a few days after that but there are other options available is we are needed after two weeks.

I’ll go through and find a few pictures to add here then we’ll get this posted. We are at Susy’s house now and Lorraine hasn’t started her portion yet and we didn’t bring her computer with us so I’ll pass this one over to her when she’s ready so she can add her words of wisdom.

Sunday breakfast with Tom/Dorothy on left, Dave/Sandy on right.

Tom, Dorothy, Lorraine on left; Dave, Sandy and Dorothy’s sister Mary on right.

There’s fresh snow in the mountains and that’s where it belongs, not down where we are.

Some of desert is showing spring flowers.

Sure can see a long way our here.

The almond trees are in full bloom.

More signs of spring in the valley, lots of green.

The reservoir has a bit more water than when we left about 8 weeks ago.

And the hills are green, not brown.

A problem with the almond trees in bloom, lots of bees out pollenating them and also splatting on our windshield. Took awhile to get them washed off the front of the rig when we got to the Elks here.